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Editing Styles and Guidelines
Pace’s editing and style guidelines ensure all content is clear, consistent, and on-brand. Learn how to format dates, times, phone numbers, and emails correctly, follow accessibility best practices, and apply consistent formatting conventions across the site. These standards help keep pace.edu professional, readable, and easy to navigate for every visitor.
To edit content on pace.edu, log in with your Pace username and Drupal-specific password. After signing in, you can use Drupal’s editing tools to update and manage your department or school pages.
Dates
Use the following correct date formats:
- January 1, 2025
- Friday, January 1, 2025
- January 1
For date ranges, use this format:
- January 1-8, 2025
Times
Correct format for single times:
- 12:00 p.m.
(Include a space after the minutes and use periods in the meridiem)
Correct format for time ranges:
- 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
(Use an en dash with no spaces between times)
Combining Dates and Times
Correct formats for combined date and time:
- January 1, 2025, at 12:00 p.m.
- Friday, January 1, 2025, at 12:00 p.m.
Correct format for date and time ranges:
- January 1–8, 2025 | 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Phone Numbers
Correct phone number format:
- Phone: (914) 999-9999
Avoid listing extension numbers alone. Always use the full phone number for staff or faculty, since callers may be off-campus or using cell phones. Using only an extension can make it difficult to reach the person.
Use "Phone" instead of "Telephone" when listing contact details.
Use “Email” or “email” instead of variations like E-Mail, E-mail, or e-mail.
Do not capitalize any letters in email addresses—Pace University emails never require capital letters.
Correct email format: yourname@pace.edu
If your page includes a single email address within a sentence, it’s acceptable to write phrases like:
- “Email the Art Department”
- “Email John Doe”
These phrases should link to the appropriate department or personal email. It’s also fine to say, for example, “Email John Doe at jdoe@pace.edu.” Avoid using repetitive “Email Us” links on the same page.
For listings with multiple people, include each person’s email like this:
Jane Doe
President
Phone: (914) 999-9999
Email: jdoe@pace.edu
Links
Do not paste full URLs into a block of text.
Correct link format:
Incorrect link format:
- Visit the Pace University website at https://www.pace.edu
Avoid generic link text. Link text that is more specific will help users identify what they are clicking
Correct link text samples:
- Visit the Pace University Website
- Register for the Graduate Open House
- Sign up for the Accounting BBA program
- Read the article on the New York Times
Incorrect link text samples:
- Click here (What am I clicking here for?)
- here (What's here?)
- Read More (Read more about what?)
- Go (Go where?)
- Learn More (Learn more about what?)
- View More (View more what?)
Avoid Repetitive Link text:
For example: If you had 3 event registration links in a section (One for New York City, one for Pleasantville, and one for White Plains), your link text shouldn’t simply say “Register” 3 times in a row. Instead, your link text should say something specific for each link. See below.
Correct link text:
Incorrect link text:
File Naming
Before you upload a file to the website, your file name should
- Begin your file name with your department or school name.
- Use all lowercase letters.
- Use hyphens between words—do not use underscores or spaces.
- Avoid special characters like apostrophes or plus signs; file names should contain only letters and numbers.
- Do not use abbreviations to keep file names clear and easy to understand.
- Do not include revision numbers or revised dates. Only include semester dates (e.g., fall-2024) or the year, placed at the end of the file name.
For example, if you work in ITS and have a PDF titled
- Adobe_Sign_Process_And_Guidelines_011124-revision1.pdf,
rename it before uploading to:
- its-adobe-sign-process-and-guidelines.pdf.
Correct file name
- its-adobe-sign-process-and-guidelines-2024.pdf
Incorrect file name
- adobe_sign_process_&_guidelines_rev4_011124.pdf
When uploading a PDF, it is mandatory to include a clear and descriptive title in the Acrobat Document Properties. For example, a suitable title might be "Pace University ITS - Adobe Sign Services." This title is important to maintain ADA compliance and improve Google search results.
File Links
If you are linking to a file, include the file extension within the link
Correct link text examples for files:
- Sample File Link (PDF) – if you were linking to a PDF file
- Sample File Link (DOCX) – if you were linking to a word DOCX file
- Sample File Link (DOC) – if you were linking to a word DOC file
- Sample File Link (XLSX) – if you were linking to a Excel X file
- Sample File Link (XLS) – if you were linking to a Excel file
Auto-Fill Link Fields
Link fields with a circle on the right edge are auto-fill link fields. When linking to pages within the pace.edu website, type the page name into the field. As you type, matching options will appear below for you to select.
Correct way to do an auto-fill link field:
Start typing the name of the page
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Then click the option underneath to fill in the field
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Incorrect way to do an auto-fill link field (Unless the link is to an outside source)
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Please avoid using URLs in these fields. If URLs change, the links may break. Using the correct page name method ensures your links always point to the right page.
Locations
For search engine optimization, it’s important to use full location names rather than abbreviations. Analytics show few users search for “PLV” or “WP.” These guidelines also apply to documents posted on the website.
- Always use Pleasantville, not “PLV.”
- Always use White Plains, not “WP.”
- For New York City, use New York City whenever possible. “NYC” is acceptable, but the full name is preferred for consistency.
Quotes
Quotes with attribution should look like this. To create the space between the quote and the Attribution, you should create two line breaks. On a Mac computer, you can create a line break by using Shift + Return. On a PC, you can create a line break by using Shift + Enter.
—The dash to the left should be an Emdash.
Avoid using tables
HTML tables are generally not mobile-friendly. If you create a table, ensure it displays fully on a phone screen. If it doesn’t fit, consider alternative layouts like bullet lists or paragraphs to present the content more effectively.
Text Formatting Tips and Things To Check When Editing Your Pages.
- Avoid blank paragraphs at the end of your content or between paragraphs to create extra spacing, as this can cause accessibility issues for screen reader users.
- Remove any extra blank spaces at the end of paragraphs.
- Ensure links have no extra spaces at the beginning or end. The link should start and end exactly with the linked text—extra spaces can cause awkward underlining, like this: Sample Link .
- Always link email addresses. Unlike the old site, emails won’t automatically become clickable links. Unlinked emails will just appear as plain text.
- Do not use double spaces after periods; this is outdated and unnecessary on screens.
- Avoid underlining text to emphasize it, as underlined text suggests a link. Use bold, italics, or both instead.
- Do not use ALL CAPS for headings, links, accordion titles, etc. Content will automatically convert to all caps when saved if needed.
- If you need to emphasize text with ALL CAPS, consider if bold or italics might work better—ALL CAPS can be hard to read in large blocks.
- Do not add an “s” to FAQ; the “s” is implied. It’s not “Frequently Asked Questionss.”
- Don’t use “>” at the start of a line to create bullet lists—use the bullet list button instead.
- Don’t use “>” at the end of links; arrows are not needed to indicate links.
- Avoid bolding headings. If a heading looks bolded incorrectly after saving, please remove the bold formatting.